Richard Todd's Former Home at Little Humby

Here are a couple of pictures that were kindly sent to me in March 2009 by Mike, of the house in Little Humby in which Richard Todd lived, up until his sad death aged 90 in December of that same year. Little Humby is a small hamlet about 8 miles from Grantham in Lincolnshire, England; Richard described the small peaceful village jokingly as the ‘great metropolis’.


Throughout his time in Lincolnshire the legendary film star and war veteran worked for charities such as Age Concern and raised huge sums for his talks at local events. Richard was a patron of Share The Care and St. Barnabas Hospice and was actively involved in military commemorations with The British Legion and Normandy Veterans’Association.

What can I say that hasn’t been said about him across the Internet and around the media since the great man’s death. This blog will certainly keep his memory alive with articles and pictures of his fascinating career. Today I would like to include an article from a Richard Todd tribute site from Ellen in the USA which very kindly also gives this blog a mention:


Richard Todd

"I was born a week before D-Day and my childhood was full of the same Richard Todd movies. I first saw him (as Robin Hood) on the big screen at the age of eight, and it was truly love at first sight. He was the only movie star I ever loved -- for years, when I was young, I would look through the movie section of the TV guide every week, hoping to find one of his movies. The Robin Hood movie (http://disneysrobin.blogspot.com/ (ed. note: just checked out that page and there is a very moving obituary and wonderful pictures)) was and still is my favorite. Richard Todd was a HUGE presence in my life.

I was constantly looking for pictures of him and information about his life, which were almost impossible to find over here. How can I say what he meant to me? I not only adored him, he was the very embodiment of everything a man should be (I felt) and his "presence" was enormously comforting to me in a world that seemed to grow more insane with every passing year as I grew out of childhood.

About ten years ago, I was glad to read in his autobiography of his real-life reaction to the drugged-out decadent and dirty hippies he encountered in SF in 1967. About that same time on the other coast of the USA, I was having a similar reaction to similar hordes who suddenly popped up everywhere in Cambridge Mass. That I immediately got out of there in active search of something (and someone) solid and good and wholesome had a great deal to do with Richard Todd and all he had meant to me. He embodied THE GOOD WORLD where people behaved nobly and honorably and lived simple decent dignified lives. Reading mostly between the lines of his two volumes of autobiography -- Caught in the Act and In Camera, very intelligent & well-written, which everyone who loves him should search out and read -- I gather that he was not a saint and like anyone had his faults and failings. Nevertheless, I think that Richard Todd really was in some deep authentic way everything that I thought he was when I was a starry-eyed little kid. Ever since his movies became available on video, I bought them all and watched most of them several times, some many times. The few nasty, weak, or decadent roles he played seem cast against type, whereas high ideals and true gentlemanly character still shine through his many heroic roles.

No wonder he inspired me to do better all my life and even helped me to marry well! I so wish I could have met him, but it changed my life just to see him and love what I saw. That there is no one like him to inspire today's children is very sad indeed.

- Ellen USA "

Ellen, please get in touch, it would be great to hear from you!